Rest In Power: Happy Birthday To The Late Great Prodigy

Paying tribute to a legendary emcee and businessman

November 2nd marks what would have been Albert Johnson–better known as his rap moniker Prodigy‘s– 43rd birthday. The Mobb Deep emcee suffered from sickly cell anemia for the better part of his career and was taken from us on June 20th, but the star is far from forgotten. Though he had mostly moved on from rap at the time of his passing and was focusing on his many other business ventures, his death was a reminder to everyone that his beautiful rhymes need to be appreciated for all that they brought to the game.

Hip-hop has been mourning Prodigy’s passing for the past 5 months, so his words have been at the the top of everyone’s minds. Both his raps in songs and his words in his books resonate still, as he had a way of being clever, funny, and gritty in his phrasing no matter what the medium.

Let’s pay tribute to Prodigy today by taking a listen to some of his best verses throughout his decades-long career, and appreciate the genius that was taken from us too soon.